Kentucky basketball practice officially starts tomorrow

The official start to the 2022-23 Kentucky men’s basketball season begins tomorrow.

The Wildcats got a nice head start with practice and game action in the Bahamas this summer. Now, though, the real fun begins with the first preseason practice of the year.

As fans gear up for Big Blue Madness campout this weekend, the Wildcats will be putting in work at the Joe Craft Center to get ready for the season. Practice starts tomorrow and continues throughout the week and beyond. That will lead us to Big Blue Madness, the Blue-White Game in Pikeville and exhibition games in October before the regular season begins in November.

To get fans ready, the Kentucky basketball video team put together a highlight montage of Bahamas footage, offseason workouts and a preseason meeting with sports psychologist Bob Rotella.

“You were put on the planet Earth for a purpose, and the purpose is to do something unbelievable with your life,” Rotella told the team. “If you want to chase greatness, you’ve got to be ready to play every night. It can’t change based on who you’re playing.

“It’s a level of passion a lot of people don’t have. You’re competing against the standard of excellence you guys pick for yourselves. You’ve got to prepare every day, like, ‘I’m going to be ready when I get my chance, when I get my moment, because I care too much about the team.

“It’s one of the simple ways to separate, ‘I’m going to do whatever I gotta do to help the team succeed.’ You can’t do it on your own.”

"I'm going to do whatever I gotta do to help the team succeed."

First practice tomorrow. Let's go to work.#GoBigBlue pic.twitter.com/9GNVI39Dkg

— Kentucky Men’s Basketball (@KentuckyMBB) September 26, 2022

The fight for No. 9 begins Tuesday.